The biggest benefit of Spacemacs is not possible to replicate any other way: you can cd ~/.emacs.d/ and git pull and upgrade your whole configuration directory

The biggest benefit of Spacemacs is not possible to replicate any other way: you can cd ~/.emacs.d/ and git pull and upgrade your whole configuration directory with new features and nifty additions and provided with org-mode. No more searching "how do I...?" on Emacs StackExchange, because it's very likely whatever feature you're looking for has already been set up for you.